Reacting Instead Of Responding

 

I'm sure I am not alone in choosing not to watch the extensive video detailing the murder of Tyre Nichols. Granted, I have seen snippets on the news, but the thought of an extended viewing of a man being beaten to death holds no appeal for me.

Yet his execution on the streets of Memphis has raised a number of questions, the race of his killers not the least of them. How could five black officers have used such a level of violence against a black man? And there is no simple answer, despite those who insist there is nothing wrong with the system, just 'bad apples' who have infiltrated it as a means of exercising their abhorrent tendencies.

Others have suggested that, being black, the officers' heinous behaviour sprang from a need to show that, despite their race, they were a "part of the team," that team being the blue brotherhood - you know, the team that regularly abuses its authority, especially when dealing with people of colour, and covers up their actions accordingly.

Relatedly, others have suggested the murder just underscores a violent systemic police culture crying out for radical reform. And it is this cause that is the thorniest to deal with. Many would prefer to react to the immediate problem instead of responding with long-term solutions.

In her column today, Shree Paradkar reflects on how little progress has been made since the graphic murder at the hands of police of George Floyd, largely due kto an institutional reluctance to address root causes of the violence.

Bernice King, the lawyer and activist daughter of Martin Luther King Jr., said, “It should not require another video of a Black human being dehumanized for anyone to understand that police brutality is an urgent, devastating issue.”

The other talking point, as if to lay doubt on the fact of anti-Blackness in policing is this: “But five of the officers who brutalized Nichols are Black!”

Surely, after all the conversations about systemic racism with the “racial reckoning” of 2020, this question is but a reflection of denialism? Why else the stubborn insistence that racism is solely about what lies in the hearts of individuals?

Historically, she says, many police forces were created to monitor slaves trying to escape and move Indigenous people off their land. That legacy must be considered in contemporary police abuses.

If the race of the officers involved is relevant, it is not to give an out to white cops. It is to show how systemic racism does not require the person enforcing it to be white.

“The slogan to come out of the previous uprising wasn’t ‘Defund white police;’ it was ‘Defund the police,’ observed writer and podcaster Victor Bradley on Twitter. “Because the people focused on this issue know it isn’t justice to diversify an institution designed to enforce social injustice.”

He also pointed to the long-existing media narrative of “white cop on Black man,” leading the public to believe that personal bias of white cops was the problem. “The system is extremely anti-Black and violent even when it’s functioning normally,” he said.

Since the murder of Floyd, there has only been some tinkering around the edges of policing. 

 Anti-racism committees were instituted. Workplace workshops were briefly the rage. Lots of trauma porn — hey Black people can you horrify us with your tales of terror? Can I get you a coffee? There were some new hires and promotions: white women and non-Black people of colour benefited, continuing a history of gaining from activism for Black people. And sure, some Black people benefited, too, with institutions of power holding them up as symbols of progress, the most valued being those most willing to go along. 

But nothing systemic has really changed, and Canadians have little reason to feel superior in this regard.

Far from having their wings clipped, police power has become more entrenched than before. No city in Canada cut its budget. On the contrary, they all increased it annually (at lower rates than before, if you’re looking for reasons to hope). Given how tight city finances are, to increase the police budget is to literally deprive another more needed service in the city.

The police are convenient symbols of power when we need them. For example, given the recent spate of violence on the TTC, frequently perpetrated by mentally ill street people, it is easy for  Mayor John Tory and the TTC to say they will ramp up police presence on the subways and streetcars, while the problems underlying that violence continue to fester beneath the surface. 

Reacting is much easier than truly responding. Real change takes time. And that will never happen until there is a real appetite for it amongst the powers that be.